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Brit-Cit
Brit-Cit is a megacity sprawling across south England, from Dover to Cornwall and north to the Watford Gap. Other territory under its control (the Brit Territories in 2100Prog #50: "The First Luna Olympics") have included Cal-Hab, South Welsh Peninsula, Gib Rock, and New Raj Protectorate. It has a power-sharing agreement with Sino-Cit over Hong Tong and with Mega-City One over the Atlantis transport hub, and corporate influence over Murphyville. The "Brit Territories" were first mentioned in prog 50, and Brit-Cit both mentioned and depicted in prog 485. Description Brit-Cit has many similarities to Mega City One - it is crowded with a population who live in huge city block apartments and crime is rife. Quite a few examples of England's more classical architecture remains, and much of the lower classes live outside the city in decaying 20th Century houses. The city is split into Sectors, both given the usual "Sector number" system and some named after the area they were built over, such as Oxford Sector. In marked contrast to Mega-City One, the welfare system ensures that everyone who isn't a criminal or insane has a job.(One definition of insanity is that you don't take the jobs the system gives you) Megazine #285 Class divisions and warfare are rife, with the aristocracy having great power and privilege. This has diminished since the massacre of the Judges' Star Chamber in the late 2120s.Megazine #285 The Royal Family still exist within the Forbidden Citadel, a bunker turned into an independent (and deliberately isolated) city-state from 2070-2114 before Justice Department took control.Megazine 2.18 Since then, the Royals have been seen in the wider world. The Student Prince, Prog 2002; For King and Country The BBC has evolved into the BCBC (Brit-City Broadcasting Corporation), which still runs a World Service''For King And Country'' audio. It has a smaller size than some of the other megacities - among other things, this means less psychics. Institutional corruption exists throughout the city, most directed by the criminal Overlords who came to power after the Atomic Wars. One of the more notorious was Efil Drago San, who is currently hiding off-world but retains influence in the city. Brit-Cit and Mega-City One Brit-Cit has a "special relationship" with Mega City One dating back to before the Atomic Wars (to the extent of being the only nation that didn't condemn President Booth) and the two work together quite often. The two jointly administer Atlantis, the mid-point in the Atlantic Tunnel. Brit-Cit was responsible for the American Judges driving out Nero Narcos, Brit-Cit assisted in a MC-1 led international humanitarian mission in Ciudad Barranquilla, robot aid was sent in 2134 to help with Chaos Day, and the two cities have also run exchange programmes with their Cadet Judges, as seen in The Hunting Party. Brit-Cit is aware, however, that Mega-City One is deliberately concealing an "Alpha File" from them that could shatter this relationship; spies sent to retrieve it have "disappeared", leaving Brit-Cit unaware that the File contains information about an atomic war between Britain and "unknown parties" in 2150.Megazine #283, Judge Dredd: The Americans Judge Dredd has been disparaging about their ties to the Privy Council, snapping that Mega-City One's "special relationship" is no different to any other small, corrupt state it wants something from. Megazine 319 History Brit-Cit had formed by 2057. Under the Unified Accord, religion, bigotry and sexism were been banned in Brit-Cit. The Church Of Grud And Jovus was allowed to remain only as a placeholder to prevent other faiths springing up to fill the gap. Megazine 212: Apostasy In The UK Part 1 In practice, these bans didn't stick. In 2070, while every other power was condemning President Booth, Brit-Cit remained America's ally and talked about compromise. Despite its ties the United Kingdom still had a police force instead of the instant-justice systemMegazine 267 and Megazine #240, Meet Darren Dead, in common with the rest of Europe. By this point, one of the city's big exports was terrible reality TV.Meet Darren Dead Following the Atomic Wars, Brit-Cit had been directly hit and northern England and the Midlands were devastated by rad clouds. The Royal Family fled to an underground bunker (which would become the Forbidden Citadel) and never re-emerged, chaos reigned, and a multi-faction civil war broke out between any and all parties. The Emergency Military Government became the 'official' rulers, while mostly fighting with the Gaels in the west, "Nomads" in the east, and the Judges in the south. The early Judges were in fact formed by a conclave of the ruling crimelords, hoping to survive by getting Mega-City One (as Chief Judge Goodman wished to spread the Judge system further). Other factions included the Kentish Theocracy, the New Surrey Raj, the Merseyside Tech-Zone, and the psychotic mutant Gabriel in the northern "Deathzone". Deathmasques and Psykogeddon books, Judge Dredd Megazine 2.31-33, "Armitage: Flashback II" The EMG eventually blockaded themselves into North London in 2079, and started to slaughter any opposition and carry out state terrorism on the civilian population. The London Liberation Army tried to fight them with guerilla warfare. Judge Dredd Megazine 2.31 In 2080, Judges and a young Armitage clashed with Gabriel in the ruins of Birmingham, and seemingly killed him. The Judges believed they'd soon have control of the whole country in "five years tops".Judge Dredd Megazine 2.32-3, "Armitage: Flashback II" In fact, they'd taken the country by 2082. Armitage: Flashback, Megazine 2.19 - 2.21 Eton College not only survived the civil war, but aristocrat Devlin Waugh was attending during it. His father Magnus, the foremost magical adept in Britain and Head Baphomet of the Tythonian O.T.O, died in 2083.Devlin Waugh: Innocence and Experience In 2087, Brit-Cit was still a post-war state, with visible damage and food shortages. The newly promoted Detective-Judge Armitage discovered that Justice Department, the Terachem company, and crimelord Efil Drago San were colluding: rich clients were paying them to divert and murder arrested felons and erase their records. Armitage stopped Drago San and crippled him; Drago San murdered his partner Liona in revenge.Armitage: Flashback, Megazine 2.19 - 2.21 Goodman attended a Christmas Goodwill Summit in 2098.Monkey on my Back In 2101, occult supervillain Mister Bliss attacked the city with Qlippothic larvae and Psi-Division were unable to stop it - Devlin Waugh, now freelancing for the Vatican, saved the day. This was the first time he came to public attention.Chasing Herod Prologue In 2105, an enraged art-critic destroyed half of the Statue of Blind Justice’s head with a rocket launcher. The New Old Bailey never got around to fixing it. During the 2112 Fortean event, there were 419 sightings of the Black Dog and a descendent of the psychic Doris Stokes claimed to have Excalibur & pronounced the return of Albion. In the same year, Supersurf 12 was held in Brit-Cit.Chopper: Earth, Wind, and Fire In 2114, the Black Museum's curator Nathan Hand went violently paranoid, faked his death, and began killing Senior Judges. Armitage, his old protege, had to kill him in self defence. Armitage first story Unknown to Armitage, Hand had been unknowingly part of an operation involving Special Branch. Megazine 2.33 During Judgement Day, Brit-Cit was surrounded and almost overrun by the zombie hordes. Judge Armour was part of the pan-judicial strikeforce to take down Sabbat but unfortunately died in the first few minutes. The Star Chamber was wiped out in 2127 Judge Dredd: Psyko-Geddon by Dave Stone, leaving a confusing power vaccuum. This was labelled a "bright new dawn for Brit-Cit", though nobody was quite sure what it meant. The new changes included the loss of many of the more incompetent Senior Judges''Megazine'' #287, as well as a mass of procedural nightmares from having no replacement hierarchy.Megazine #289 By 2133, the Grand Order of the Privy Chamber ended up taking control by default, despite their previous unimportance and their reactionary social agenda, as there was no one else left.Megazine #319 First Minister Jeremy Caine made sure to please the mob with bigoted platitudes (even announcing plans for "hygienic and well-appointed camps" for foreigners). Caine met a quick end in 2133 when he used stolen, booby-trapped Mega-City technology. Armitage, Megazine 319-21 The Chaos Bug reached Brit-Cit in 2134. Borders were sealed to prevent further contagion. Government The city-state is a constitutional monarchy - despite the symbolic power, it's the Judges who run things. The last known monarch was Queen Bessie. True command was held by the Order of the Star Chamber - a fancier title for their Council of Five. They were known for high institutional corruption and were drawn from the ranks of pre-war politics, business, and minor royalty rather than from the Judge ranks.Megazine 3.65 Many were horrifically old, kept alive by stookie and other illegal drugs. After the Star Chamber was wiped out, a confusing power vacuum left the city-state riddled with jurisdictional issues''Megazine'' #289 and CID enjoyed a brief few years of greater autonomy. The Grand Order of the Privy Chamber - the future version of the Privy Council - would fill the vacuum, much to the distate of some of the Judges. Whether they're still in power after the death of First Minister Caine is unclear.Megazine #319-22 Judges The Brit-Cit Justice Department is based in the New Old Bailey. It is very similar in structure and effect to the Mega City One justice system, with uniforms that appear based on their American counterparts. Compared to the modern day, the Judges are highly fascistic. Compared to Mega-City One though, they're quite lenient: Detective-Judges are allowed to marry, tea and sugar is legal, crime blitzes and lie detectors are not yet legalisedMegazine #269 and #301. Prospective Judges spend ten years at Hendon Academy, followed by twelve months on probation with a Judge.Judge Dredd Megazine #1.10 Due to the Overlords' establishing the Justice Department, judicial corruption in Brit-Cit has historically been a major problem. Senior Judges could traditionally buy their commissions in the same way as Victorian military officers, and many at the top were Freemasons with links to the criminal Overlords; the incompetence and corruption left it to Street and Detective Judges to get the work done. This has changed over time with the rise of a more principled new generation and the death of the old guard. Specialised branches of the Justice Department include Dispatch, the equivalent of MC-1's Control); Riot Control; Psi Division, previously named Psyk-Division; Med-Division; Shok-TAC, a heavily armoured armed response team, and Tactical Arms, a militarily uniformed group; the Special Judicial Service, a commando unit roughly equivalent to the modern day SAS rather than an internal affairs group; Special Branch, who run External Affairs (the equivalent of the Special Judicial Squad); the Endangered Species Squad, who capture fantastical creatures and attempt to breed them in order to rejuvenate the collapsing 22nd century ecosystem;Judge Dredd Megazine #319, Strange and Dark and CID, the investigative branch. Overseeing this are Administrators, who wear formal suits rather than a Judicial uniform, and lack judicial powers. CID is not popular with the "uniform plods" but gained an unspecified autonomy following the end of the Star Chamber,Megazine #266, Armitage: Dumb Blonde up until the Privy Council stepped up. Psi-Division are hamstrung by the small number of psychics and have recruited many psychics with psychiatric problems to fill the gaps.Megazine 287 Judges of note The most famous Brit-Cit Judge in Dredd strips is Detective-Judge Armitage, often paired with Detective-Judges Treasure Steel and Parkerston-Trant. A Tek-Judge called Rutherford, one of the city's best robotics men, played a primary role in ending Mega-City One's "Doomsday" crisis by reprogramming Nero Narcos' Assassinator droids. Detective Inspector Jericho Strange runs the Endangered Species Squad and is notable for his grotesque, sheep-skull head; in Strange and Darke, he's said to have his own TV show. Murphyville's most famous Judge is Judge-Sergeant Joyce, who was originally part of the Judgement Day team, but survived due to his place being (forcibly) taken by Johnny Alpha. His son Fintan Joyce joined the Mega-City One judges after Chaos Day. Cal-Hab's most prominent Judge was Judge Ed MacBrayne, considered an "utter bampot" by many of his colleagues.Cal-Hab Justice, Megazine 2.10 Two prominent Brit-Cit Judges who were transferred to Mega-City One are Judge Stark and Judge (Amy) Steel, a sidekick for Dredd in the Big Finish audio dramas. Foreign territories * Cal-Hab * South Welsh Peninsula: the name implies the Atomic War has altered the geography. The only known settlements are small, rural villages. The coast was dominated by the massive Pembroke Dockport fuel refinery in Milford Haven, the source of a number of contaminants and spills that killed, infected, and sterilised small Welsh villages; the Justice Department was paid to ignore the environmental damage. The conspiracy was exposed in 2134 and the Dockport shut down. The village of Llandris has a breeding colony of satyrs and was declared a protected area by the Endangered Species Squad.Strange and Darke: New Blood, Megazine 319-323 * The New Raj Protectorate, AKA the Turkestan Protectorates, in former Turkmenistan. It was occupied by the New Surrey Raj after the civil war.The Medusa Seed and Megazine #270, Armitage: Dumb Blonde * Hong Tong: somehow, Brit-Cit has gained jurisdiction over half of its former colony. * Gib Rock: future Gibraltar. After the territory became too much trouble - with food riots, terrorist groups, and clashes with Ciudad Espana - Brit-Cit dropped a nuclear bomb on Gib Rock.Megazine 2.11, "Cal-Hab Justice Part 2" Depiction Brit-Cit has contradictory depictions depending on who is writing. Under Dave Stone, Brit-Cit was considerably fleshed out and there was much focus on institutional corruption; John Wagner, who originally created Brit-Cit, has ignored this in his Dredd stories and has the Justice Department as being more like Mega-City One's. When Dredd visited Brit-Cit in "The Doomsday Scenario", instead of the Star Chamber we saw a Chief Judge and a large governing body in an open assembly room. For the most part, this can be explained away as Dredd looking at Brit-Cit from a different angle to Armitage. When Brit-Cit Judges have been used by other writers ("Regime Change" by Gordon Rennie, "Splashdown" by Simon Spurrier), they tend to follow the Wagner model. One other minor divergence is that the Royal Family lack any political status in Brit-Cit in Armitage, whereas For King and Country presents the Royal Family as the constitutional heads of Brit-Cit. Brit-Cit has appeared several times in the Big Finish 2000AD audio dramas. Both the Stone & Wagner versions Brit-Cit justice were used in the Dredd audio play Get Karter!, while For King And Country uses elements from the Armitage strips (the Forbidden Citadel and Star Chamber) while portraying the Brit-Cit Justice Department as mainly effective. The origin of Justice Department and Brit-Cit's history is also contradictory. Dave Stone's version was that Brit-Cit was a "global irrelevance" by the time of the Atomic Wars and only faced fall-out rather than a direct assault as it wasn't worth bombing; Justice Department only existed after the fallout and resulting civil war, and was created solely by organised crime for aid. "Hardly anyone else on the job agrees with me."http://www.2000adreview.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=2295 Indeed, it has been contradicted by other Brit-Cit stories - Meet Darren Dead (Megazine #240) and Wagner's "Origins" both show Brit-Cit being bombed during the war (Darren Dead refers to the city almost being annihilated). John Smith's Devlin Waugh: Innocence and Experience shows no sign of a civil war. Trivia * Another Brit-Cit is the home of Sam Slade in some of 2000AD's Robo-Hunter stories. * In early progs and Annuals, Invasion!, Ro-Busters, and Flesh were also loosely in continuity with Judge Dredd and Harlem Heroes. References to Mega-City One and watching Harlem Heroes in Ro-Busters, while a reprinted Mega-City Time Tour feature in Judge Dredd: The Restricted Files vol.4 refers to 1999 England as another holiday destination. This would have made the 1999 Volgan invasion of Britain as part of Brit-Cit's history, but it has since been retconned out. References Category: Locations